We’re only five weeks into the year. Who knows how the rest of the season will end up. It’s already been a wild wide for an unpredictable Pittsburgh Steelers unit with their many, many ups and downs. No one has been more “up” than T.J. Watt. It felt like a lofty goal, but he has a legitimate chance to not only break his own sack record but set the NFL’s official record.
Some numbers. And perspective. Through five weeks, five games, Watt has eight sacks. Compared to his 22.5 sack 2021 season, it’s a significant uptick. That year, he had only five through five games, in part due to getting hurt and missing all of one game.
It wasn’t until Week Eight, after the team’s Week Seven bye, that Watt reached the eight-sack mark. With Pittsburgh off next Sunday, that means he’ll enter Week Seven one sack ahead of the pace he sat at in that record-tying season two years ago. He’s already set one record, albeit a little specific, becoming the first player with a sack and fumble recovery in three of his first five games.
In 2021, Watt went aflame NBA Jam style with 10 sacks over his final four games. That included blow-up performances with 3.5 sacks over the Ravens and four sacks against the hapless Cleveland Browns and the poor rookie right tackle they hung out to dry. Another sack in the finale against the Ravens gave him 22.5 for the season to tie Michael Strahan’s mark. Had it not been for questionable penalties and officiating, Watt could’ve had the record all to himself.
But it’s time to drop that grudge. Watt is on a pace rarely seen in the NFL. The last player in the league with eight sacks through five games was Tampa Bay’s Shaq Barrett in 2019. He finished that season with 19.5 of them, back when the league played only 16 games. In 2013, Indianapolis Colts DE Robert Mathis had 9.5 sacks through five games and ended his season with 19.5. Others, like Justin Houston in 2013, who got off to that torrent pace, had their seasons hampered by injury.
Point is, Watt is doing something only seen a handful of times over the last decade. Debate Myles Garrett versus T.J. Watt all you want. We’re talking records. No one gets remembered for their PFF grade; you get put into football history for hitting 23 sacks. Apologies to Al Baker, that’s the mark the NFL will recognize. That’s what you need to get your cleats, your jersey, your name put into an exhibit of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It’s still early, there’s a long way to go, but it’s predictable to write this story if Watt has, say 20 sacks with two weeks to go. Then, the record becomes directly in focus. We’re talking about it before the rest of the NFL does. That’s what we do around here.
Watt says he doesn’t care about individual awards, and I believe him. But you bet he cares about that one. Maybe not in the moment, maybe not if the Steelers fail to get in the playoffs, but it’s something that would stick with him forever. And it should. That’s special.
Will Watt do it? Impossible to say. He’s gotta stay healthy, obviously. That has the biggest impact on whether he can hit this mark. Can Watt do it? Hell yeah. He’s T.J. Watt. The NFL’s sack machine. No one does it more often than him.
At the beginning of the year, Pat McAfee promised to donate $500,000 to charity of Watt’s choice if he set the record. I’m not saying he’s going to have to write a check. I’m just saying McAfee better have his checkbook on standby. Watt might make him pay. As soon as he’s done making opposing quarterbacks pay just the same.
